During the 10 days of the Ekka, staff from Gateway Crime Prevention Office, including our wonderful Volunteers In Policing (VIPs), worked at the Keep Kids Safe stand, ensuring the QPS were able to put safety wristbands on as many young children, and vulnerable persons as possible.
This program grows in strength every year, and it has the most amazing impact of reducing stress of children, parents/carers, and police staff themselves.
If a child or vulnerable person becomes lost, they are normally re-united with their parent or carer within a few minutes.
A photo of what the child or vulnerable person is wearing on the day is quickly circulated to all QPS staff within the Ekka, which makes this stressful situation only last minutes.
When placing the safety wristbands on the children, QPS staff were able to engage with the children and their families and talk about strategies of what to do if they became